Summary of Forces - end of November 1808
IMPERIAL FORCES
VIII Corps (Lisbon/Bayonne) - Junot (being returned to France after the Convention of Cintra):
16000 Infantry, 2000 Cavalry, 42 Guns
II Corps (Astorga) - Soult
24000 Infantry, 2000 Cavalry, 24 Guns
Lefebevre-Desnouttes' Division (Leon) - 4000 Infantry, 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns
Caffarrelli's Division (Palencia) - 4000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Burgos Garrison: 2000
Army of Spain (Palencia) - Joseph Napoleon
6000 Infantry, 2000 Cavalry, 12 Guns
I Corps (east of Valladolid) - Victor
21000 Infantry, 4000 Cavalry, 54 Guns
IV Corps (Valladolid) - Lefebvre
12000 Infantry, 1000 Cavalry, 36 Guns
San Sebastian Garrison: 2000
Pamplona Garrison: 2000
Tudela Garrison: 1000
Zaragoza Garrison: 4000
Bayonne Garrison: 6000
II Corps (Valladolid) - Moncey
26000 Infantry, 5000 Cavalry, 60 Guns
VII Corps (Rosas) - St-Cyr
18000 Infantry, 2000 Cavalry, 24 Guns + 36 Siege Guns
Chabran (Hostalrich)
6000 Infantry, 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns
Reille (Gerona)
5000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Figueras Garrison: 3000
Barcelona Garrison: 2000
General HQ: 12000 Infantry, 12000 Cavalry, 78 Guns
Lannes' Wing (Lannes): 41000 Infantry, 2000 Cavalry, 78 Guns
SPANISH FORCES
Army of Andalusia (Avila) - Castanos
25000 Infantry, 3000 Cavalry, 42 Guns
La Pena's Division (Toledo) - 5000 Infantry, 6 Guns
IV Army (Seville) - Elio
12000 Infantry, , 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns
O'Donoju (south of Andujar)
1000 Cavalry
Seville Garrison: 4000 Infantry
Cadiz Garrison: 8000 Infantry
Malaga Garrison: 2000 Infantry
Huelva Garrison: 3000 Infantry
waiting west of Granada: 7000 Infantry
Granada Garrison: 3000 Infantry, 2000 Cavalry
Army of the Centre (Cadiz) - Cuesta
9000 Infantry, 3000 Cavalry, 12 Guns
Ciudad Rodrigo Garrison: 1000 Infantry
Badajoz Garrison: 6000 Infantry
Army of Galicia (Ponferrada) - Mahy
21000 Infantry, 54 Guns
Astorga Garrison: 7000 Infantry
Ponferrada Garrison: 4000 Infantry
La Coruna Garrison: 2000 Infantry
Vigo Garrison: 3000 Infantry
Army of Valencia (Avila) - Cervellon
20000 Infantry, 1000 Cavalry, 54 Guns
Valencia Garrison: 1000 Infantry
Cartagena Garrison: 4000 Infantry
Murcia Garrison: 2000 Infantry
Army of Catalonia (Tortosa) - Palacio
5000 Infantry, 12 Guns
Hostalrich Garrison: 1000 Infantry
Tarragona Garrison: 1000 Infantry
Tortosa Garrison: 3000 Infantry
Rosas Garrison: 2000 Infantry
Gerona Garrison: 2000 Infantry
ANGLO-PORTUGUESE FORCES
Gibraltar Garrison: 6000 Infantry
British Army (west of Avila) - Moore
36000 Infantry, 4000 Cavalry, 72 Guns
Ferguson (Lisbon) - 3000 Infantry, 6 Guns
A blog dedicated to wargaming, mainly concerned with battles using 6mm toy soldiers set in a variety of different historical periods. "Make the game fit the figures" - Conrad Kinch
Heretical Gaming is my blog about my gaming life, featuring small skirmishes and big battles from many historical periods (and some in the mythic past or the far future too). The focus is on battle reports using a wide variety of rules, with the occasional rules review, book review and odd musing about the gaming and history. Most of the battles use 6mm-sized figures and vehicles, but occasionally 15mm and 28mm figures appear too.
Sunday 15 June 2014
Peninsular Campaign Summary - November 1808
Peninsular Campaign Summary - November 1808
Andalusia and New Castile:
Elio and Cuesta continued their recruitment operations, Cuesta building a base around Cadiz whilst Elio concentrated around Granada. There is an absolute limit on how many Spanish divisions can be supported at any one time - and a limit of how many troops a single division can contain - so the plan is for divisions destroyed in the North to be rebuilt as part of these two armies in the South. Only La Pena's division of the Army of Andalusia remained in New Castile, in the vicinity of Toledo, basically supply-gathering to sustain Castanos pursuit of Moncey into Leon.
Leon and Castile:
Napoleon, clearly unhappy that Bessieres was taking so long to destroy the Army of Galicia, replaced Bessieres with Marshal Soult at the head of the II Corps. After concentrating his forces and preparing his base, he struck westwards at Astorga and defeated Mahy in a particularly grim struggle, which cost the French about 5,000 casualties and two dozen guns, and the Spanish twice that. Mahy has withdrawn towards the Galician mountains, leaving Soult to blockade the 6,000 Spaniards garrisoning Astorga.
Moncey escaped Castanos and Cervellon, and was then joined by Lefebevre's and Victor's Corps around Valladolid. Clumsy supply and command arrangements kept hindering the Spanish pursuit and the two armies are now concentrated around Avila. However, they have been joined in the area by Moore, who has marched via Bejar to reinforce them.
France and Navarre:
Napoleon and the Imperial Guard, Ney's VI Corps and Mortier's V Corps have entered Spain and are marching towards Burgos, with elements spread from Miranda to Pamplona.
Aragon:
Remained quiet.
Catalonia:
St-Cyr, having replaced Duhesme and watched Palacio retreat to Tarragona, has concentrated his efforts on properly organising the campaign in Catalonia. To that end, the Spanish garrisons in Rosas, Gerona and Hostalrich have been blockaded whilst the Neapolitan division has accompanied a newly-created siege train to Rosas, in readiness for tackling the fortresses
Valencia:
Quiet, no action.
Portugal:
Quiet, no action.
Game Notes:
A good month for the French, with II Corps in unmistakeable ascendancy over the Army of Galicia, whilst the future looks even brighter as the French reinforcements pile in to Spain. St-Cyr is well set to begin the reduction of the troublesome fortresses in Catalonia next month. However, the union of the Spanish armies of Castanos and Cervellon with the British Army under Sir John Moore mean that the Allies are in possession of one large and effective strike force. The big question will be how the Allies employ it before the remaining French forces pass Burgos.
Saturday 14 June 2014
Campaign Battle 11: Crossing of the Orbigo
Crossing of the Orbigo, Mid-November 1808
General Situation: Marshal Soult, newly appointed commander of the Imperial II Corps, pursued Mahy's force towards their base at Astorga, hoping to capitalize on the ascendancy eventually gained by Bessieres over the Spanish Commander. Mahy has reinforced the garrison at Astorga, his main supply depot and has then marched forwards to try and stop Soult's approach, or at least make him pay heavily for the attempt.
The Forces:
Imperial Forces:
II Corps (CinC Marshal Soult - Decisive)
Lasalle's Division: 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns
Merle's Division: 7000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Mouton's Division: 7000 Infantry, 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns,
Desolles' Division: 12000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Lefebevre-Desnouttes' Division: 4000 Infantry, 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns
II Corps Artillery: 24 Guns
Totals: 30000 Infantry, 3000 Cavalry, 54 Guns
Spanish Forces:
Army of Galicia (CinC Gen Mahy - Plodding)
Maceda's Division: 2000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Cagigal's Division: 2000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Riquelme's Division: 6000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Portago's Division: 4000 Infantry, 30 Guns
March's Division: 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns
Acevedo's Division: 8000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Deployment:
First Moves:
The Struggle:
Result: Both sides suffered very heavy casualties, with the casualties even until the Spanish lost disproportionately heavily in the last couple of turns as many of their infantry surrendered . The Spaniards have lost 8500 infantry, 750 cavalry and 24 guns (with an even split of casualties and prisoners), the Imperials 4100 infantry, 550 cavalry and 24 guns. Luckily for Mahy, the French were in no condition to pursue, otherwise his command might have been destroyed in its entirety.
Game Notes: An absolutely thrilling game, one of the best I've played! The shape of the game turned around two large errors of generalship on my part. The Spanish position was compromised by mis-deployment: Riquelme's troops should have been on the stronger position on the Spanish right, whilst Maceda's veterans should have held the central position. Soult exploited this ruthlessly and might have gained a victory in short order. However, the French were then too aggressive, which allowed Mahy to pull off an extremely effective counter-attack. The key moment of the game was the victory of the French legere over the previously successful troops of Portago's division - the morale roll was extremely tight, but the French held on and Portago threw in the towel, but this could easily have gone differently. If Lefebevre-Desnoutte's formation had withdrawn, then the French would have almost certainly lost the battle: their tactical position would have been compromised, but more importantly there was a 66% chance that the French army's morale would have collapsed - presumably by the unsuspected ferocity of Spanish resistance!
It has been nice to get the campaign on the go again. I don't think using single 60mm x 30mm bases looks as good as the paired bases for the brigade, but given the change in table space, I think it works well enough to persever with. I just need a permanent place for my campaign map now...
General Situation: Marshal Soult, newly appointed commander of the Imperial II Corps, pursued Mahy's force towards their base at Astorga, hoping to capitalize on the ascendancy eventually gained by Bessieres over the Spanish Commander. Mahy has reinforced the garrison at Astorga, his main supply depot and has then marched forwards to try and stop Soult's approach, or at least make him pay heavily for the attempt.
The Forces:
Imperial Forces:
II Corps (CinC Marshal Soult - Decisive)
Lasalle's Division: 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns
Merle's Division: 7000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Mouton's Division: 7000 Infantry, 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns,
Desolles' Division: 12000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Lefebevre-Desnouttes' Division: 4000 Infantry, 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns
II Corps Artillery: 24 Guns
Totals: 30000 Infantry, 3000 Cavalry, 54 Guns
Spanish Forces:
Army of Galicia (CinC Gen Mahy - Plodding)
Maceda's Division: 2000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Cagigal's Division: 2000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Riquelme's Division: 6000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Portago's Division: 4000 Infantry, 30 Guns
March's Division: 1000 Cavalry, 6 Guns
Acevedo's Division: 8000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Deployment:
Soult decides to concentrate his main effort on the central bridge - the massed artillery will prepare the way for a direct assault over the bridge. |
Mahy is able to bring Cagigal's troops towards the French left and reinforces Portago's troops with Acevedo's division and stabilizes the situation. |
Mouton's attack on the southern bridge is easily beaten back by Maceda's infatry and guns. The Spanish artillery played upon the leading French troops with some effect during the course of the game. |
Same position from a different angle. The Spaniards have at least given the French something to think about, although the situation in the centre is parlous in the extreme. |
Mahy launches a co-ordinated attack on the French bridgehead. |
Maceda's troops successfully disengage from Mouton's division. |
Game Notes: An absolutely thrilling game, one of the best I've played! The shape of the game turned around two large errors of generalship on my part. The Spanish position was compromised by mis-deployment: Riquelme's troops should have been on the stronger position on the Spanish right, whilst Maceda's veterans should have held the central position. Soult exploited this ruthlessly and might have gained a victory in short order. However, the French were then too aggressive, which allowed Mahy to pull off an extremely effective counter-attack. The key moment of the game was the victory of the French legere over the previously successful troops of Portago's division - the morale roll was extremely tight, but the French held on and Portago threw in the towel, but this could easily have gone differently. If Lefebevre-Desnoutte's formation had withdrawn, then the French would have almost certainly lost the battle: their tactical position would have been compromised, but more importantly there was a 66% chance that the French army's morale would have collapsed - presumably by the unsuspected ferocity of Spanish resistance!
It has been nice to get the campaign on the go again. I don't think using single 60mm x 30mm bases looks as good as the paired bases for the brigade, but given the change in table space, I think it works well enough to persever with. I just need a permanent place for my campaign map now...
Polemos SPQR Battle
I played a little game of Polemos SPQR to test out my new terrain - new cloth, new roads. I'll let the pictures tell the story, then pick out a few points of interest at the end:
A hard-fought contest, with the Britons and their slightly weaker forces coming close to pulling off an unlikley victory, but unfortunately the rules penalize the command abilities of leaders involved in close combat heavily, so although the Britons' leader led his cavalry to personal victory, he was unable to command his army effectively and the Romans, with a more decentralized structure, were able to continue their outflanking move which ultimately brought success.
Meanwhile, the Romans' IX Legion and Numidian cavalry attempt to outflank the Britons' right flank. But surely the Britons will react to this obvious move? |
The same position from a differnet angle. You can see on the extreme right that the Britons' light horsemen are reforming, having seen off the Roman cavalry on that wing. |
A hard-fought contest, with the Britons and their slightly weaker forces coming close to pulling off an unlikley victory, but unfortunately the rules penalize the command abilities of leaders involved in close combat heavily, so although the Britons' leader led his cavalry to personal victory, he was unable to command his army effectively and the Romans, with a more decentralized structure, were able to continue their outflanking move which ultimately brought success.
Friday 6 June 2014
New Roads, Courtesy of Miniature Wargames
Whilst I'm still deciding what to do with my Napoleonic campaign, given my new problems with space (and a bit of a disaster when a small child got hold of the campaign map), I've had a game or two of Polemos SPQR and got on with a spot of terrain making and painting. I'd never been particularly happy with the roads I'd made and when an article appeared in Miniature Wargames 374 which demonstrated a way to make some good-looking, cheap, flexible roads in very little time, I was immediately interested.
Sorry for the particularly poor shots, but hopefully it gives the idea that the roads at least look nice! I'm really pleased with the way it turned out - well done Miniature Wargames and thanks.
Roman Cavalry on the dirt road face some skirmishers in the rough ground, whilst the main force of Britons waits on the hill opposite. |
A Roman Legion looks across the stream towards the Britons blocking the road on the hill to their front. |
A closer look at the road section. The road follows the curve of the mat really well. |
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